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ARTS EDUCATION
PARTNERSHIP RELEASES REPORT DEMONSTRATING THE ARTS’
CRITICAL LINK TO STUDENT DEVELOPMENT
Cutting back on
school arts programs may prove counterproductive
Washington,
D.C., May 16, 2002-A
new report released today by the Arts Education
Partnership (AEP) finds that the arts provide critical
links for students to develop crucial thinking skills
and motivations they need to achieve at higher
levels-and not be left behind. The research studies in
this report further suggest that for certain
populations-students from economically disadvantaged
circumstances, students needing remedial instruction,
and young children-the effects of learning in the arts
may be especially robust and able to boost learning and
achievement.
The report,
Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student
Academic and Social Development, details the
relationship between learning in dance, drama, music,
multiple arts, and visual arts, and the development of
fundamental academic and social skills and will compel
educators to think twice before cutting the arts if
their goal is to increase student academic achievement.
“I urge
education leaders throughout the country to read this
compendium and pay close attention to its findings,”
said G. Thomas Houlihan, executive director of the
Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the
association of the leaders of state departments of
education, who today sent the report to the education
chiefs at the state departments of education. “In the No
Child Left Behind Act, Congress named the arts as one of
the core subjects that all schools should teach. The
studies in Critical Links show the wisdom of that
decision and the benefit of arts learning for every
child.”
The Arts
Education Partnership is administered by CCSSO and the
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies through a
cooperative agreement with the National Endowment for
the Arts and the U.S. Department of Education.
“While many of us have known
arts education enhances academic instruction,
Critical Links is the first report of the hard
evidence that supports this conclusion,” said United
States Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS). “This will assist
school boards, teachers, and administrators as they make
choices about the curriculum and other opportunities our
students should have.”
Critical Links
is a compendium
reviewing 62 studies of arts learning in dance, drama,
music, multiple arts, and visual arts. Interpretive
essays examine the implications of the body of studies
in each of these areas, and an overview essay explores
the issue of the transfer of learning from the arts to
other academic and social outcomes.
The report
outlines the important relationships between learning in
the arts and academic and social skills in the following
major areas:
•
Reading and language development-Certain
forms of arts instruction enhance and complement
basic reading instruction aimed at helping children
“break the phonetic code” that unlocks written
language by associating letters, words, and phrases
with sounds, sentences, and meanings. Reading
comprehension and speaking and writing skills are
also improved.
•
Mathematics-Certain
music instruction develops spatial reasoning and
spatial-temporal reasoning skills, which are
fundamental to understanding and using mathematical
ideas and concepts.
•
Fundamental thinking skills and capacities-Learning
in individual art forms, as well as in multiple arts
experiences, engages and strengthens such
fundamental cognitive capacities as spatial
reasoning, conditional reasoning, problem-solving,
and creative thinking.
•
Motivations to learn-Learning
in the arts nurtures motivation, including active
engagement, disciplined and sustained attention,
persistence, and risk-taking, and also increases
attendance and educational aspirations.
•
Effective social behavior-Studies
of student learning in certain arts activities show
student growth in self-confidence, self-control,
self-identity, conflict resolution, collaboration,
empathy, and social tolerance.
• School
environment-Studies
show that the arts help to create the kind of
learning environment that is conducive to teacher
and student success by fostering teacher innovation,
a positive professional culture, community
engagement, increased student attendance and
retention, effective instructional practice, and
school identity.
“This report
contains valuable insights that will help direct arts
educators in their efforts to provide more effective
arts learning experiences for their students,” according
to Eileen B. Mason, acting chairman of the National
Endowment for the Arts. “But we are still in the early
stages of this important work. I hope private
foundations will join us in supporting the next phase of
research so that we can deepen our understanding of the
nature of learning through the arts.”
“It is
imperative that further research be conducted to confirm
and deepen the findings in this compendium,” said
Richard J. Deasy, director of the Arts Education
Partnership. “These studies suggest that it is a matter
of equity that we make high quality arts programs part
of the education and development of every young person.
Research needs to show the forms of arts instruction
that will close the achievement gap for students who are
falling behind. Critical Links points to specific
directions for this future research.”
AEP is a
national coalition of arts, education, business,
philanthropic, and government organizations that
demonstrates and promotes the essential role of the arts
in the learning and development of every child and in
the improvement of America's schools. The partnership
includes more than 100 organizations that are national
in scope and impact. It also includes state and local
partnerships focused on influencing education policies
and practices to promote quality arts education.
Jonathan Katz,
CEO of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies,
said, “These findings should encourage education
decision makers at the state and local levels to ensure
that adequate classroom hours of arts teaching are
available in all schools to all students, that learning
in the arts is assessed, and that both arts specialist
teachers as well as generalist teachers have adequate
training and budgets to provide excellent instruction in
the arts.”
Critical Links
is available in a PDF on the AEP Web site (www.aep-arts.org).
To order printed copies, contact CCSSO Publications at
(202) 336-7016.
The Council of
Chief State School Officers is a nationwide, nonprofit
organization comprised of the public officials who head
the departments of elementary and secondary education in
the states, the District of Columbia, five U.S.
extra-state jurisdictions, and the Department of Defense
Education Activity.
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